Search This Blog

Understanding the Four Pillars of a Brand

Trust is the
underlying substrate of every decision we take, so much so that it is evident
in everything we do. The more difficult the choice, the more it is pinned on
the essential intangible of trust. Let’s take relationships, politics, and
commerce. Though the three streams may seem distinct and discrete, the trust
(or lack of it) in one, can impact the others, either positively or negatively,
depending on the disposition of the person making the trust decision. Contrary
to what may seem, and a little counter-intuitively, most trust relationships
depend more on our own behavior rather than that of the environment.

A brand (or a person)
may be able to alter or adapt to a few behaviors of trust temporarily, but the
innate 'behavior tendency', the natural conduct of the brand, becomes an
overwhelming factor in the results of its interactions with the world. For a
brand to build permanent trust relationships, therefore, behavior changes must
be or become natural to it, blending in as an intrinsic part of its existence.

The four behavior
pillars on which the 'outlook of brands' are dependent are the core factors that
need attention when dealing with a brand's intangibles. These are the brand's
Values, Culture, Vision, and Knowledge. The outcome of these four also includes
trust, though it is not the only result these four come together to create. To
understand these four behavior pillars is to understand a brand's core.

Values are key determinants
of attitudes and behavior of a brand, and are defined by the thin decision-line
that segregates its 'right' and 'wrong'. This resultantly also measures the
integrity of the brand. The Culture of the brand is demarcated by the brand's
ideas, customs, and social behavior that define its uniqueness and make it
belong to a class. Culture is basic to a brand and develops over a period
depending on the emergence of the collective design from individual actions. It
can be said to be the 'pattern of behavior' rather than behavior alone. The
brand's Vision is an articulation of the brand's larger purpose, one that it
should and will pursue irrespective of all circumstances and distractions. It
is what the organization, as individuals and as a collective, must strive to
achieve in all its actions.

Knowledge is the
combination of a brand's self-awareness, self-consciousness, social awareness,
environmental consciousness, and intellectual capability. This last pillar
expresses itself directly in every brand action. In order to impact the trust
of its stakeholders, a brand should adapt its internal factors as much as its
external behavior or communication. However, to be sustainable, these must be
aligned with the brand's core behavior pillars elaborated above.

The promise of intent
of the brand is important, but the most imperative hinge of trust is always in
its delivery – be it a product, service, or an idea. In one sense, trust is the
delivery of the brand's promise. Brands that act towards enhancing the value of
their intangibles will make big and permanent gains. Brands that only continue
to focus on numbers may survive, but will not come close to making a mark among
historic brands.

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Comments

Popular Posts

Recently, I interviewed a young journalist wanting to turn to public relations as a profession and I asked her two questions. The first, why she joined journalism received an appropriate, though expected answer - 'To give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves', followed quickly by 'It is perhaps the only profession in which you can be fearless and work towards correcting the wrongs you see in society.'

I gave her a smile, and lodged my second question. 'Why then do you want to shift to Public Relations?' She remorsefully replied, 'I'm disillusioned.'

That conversation, in a nutshell, sums up most of mainstream journalism today. Viewed from the outside, most see a brave, determined journalist standing up for the truth, upholding the 4D principles above all - Detect, Discern, Doubt and Demand. When seen from the inside, most journalists have experienced persuasion - bordering on mild coercion disguised as 'advice', management encou…

If there's a commodity that perishes as swiftly as it is created, it is news. The longer it takes to create, the higher its longevity and by corollary, news produced by the second, dies by the second.

We want our gratifications without any waiting period, we want to gulp down our food, build instant abs, get rich immediately and also know everything now. We are also anxious to know more and more, and information has become a status-according social currency.Fortunately, acquisition of knowledge does not have a finish line and so it behaves quite differently from instant abs or instant noodles.

In this hurried age, magazines play an important role by balancing societal myopia with perspective; need-for-speed with understanding, and anxiety with patience. The magazines analyze and opine like the elders of society - and hence also play the role of elders in the information society. In an age when every new opinion becomes news, magazines bring perspective through considered informat…

(also appeared in Firstpost) The recent Tata boardroom spat has
spawned many faceted discussions, and one of these has been on the appointment
and role Independent Directors – an aspect that not only concerns governance,
but also Board room expertise. Like many, I spent a considerable amount of time
wondering what the boardroom discussions would be like, extrapolating from the
little information that was available. To emphasize the need for expertise in the board, the rules
for appointment of independent directors of a board under the MCA Act require
the independent director to possess appropriate skills, experience and knowledge in one or more fields of finance,
law, management, sales, marketing, administration, research, corporate
governance, technical operations or other disciplines related to the company's
business. It is quite clear that expertise (and not just experience) is one
of the necessary qualities of the board. The question that kept coming back to
me was whether it …